Soil pH in Lewis, KY: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Lewis, KY

Typical topsoil in Lewis, KY is pH 5.41, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 7.7 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Lewis needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.1).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.41, spread about 77 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 2 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 256,412 surveyed acres in Lewis, KY, 67% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 16% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 15% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 2% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.3 to 7.5, a spread of 3.2 units across 134 soil components. 67% of the land falls in one class, so the county figure is a fair first guess for most yards here.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 17.7% clay and 2.44% organic matter, which this site treats as loam. Moving it one pH unit takes about 7 lb of lime or 2.3 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 6% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Lewis against the rest of Kentucky

pH 5.41 is 0.38 below the Kentucky median of 5.79. 12 of 120 Kentucky counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Edmonson (5.34), Laurel (5.35), Russell (5.39), Menifee (5.4), Clinton (5.47), Floyd (5.48), Whitley (5.48), Wolfe (5.48).

The range in Kentucky runs from Greenup at 5.09 to Carroll at 6.63; Lewis sits 21% of the way up.